[78-L] Estimated Survival of Shellac 78s in 2109??

[umashankar]

i work in an archives here in india (hot and dry, hot and humid and extremely cold for a very short while) and i can tell you this. i have reel tapes going back to 1960s with no detectable loss. audio cassettes from 1980s like new. and vhs cassettes look like they will outlast them all. the secret? they are not played except to make copies once or twice in their lifetimes, and now for digitisation. and they have been kept and temperature and humidity controlled space since 1982.

my real ploblem is the players. the reel recorder is 15 years old. my vhs and and audio cassette players are even older. and there are no replacements!

umashankar
 i have published my poems. you can read (or buy) at http://stores.lulu.com/umashankar 




________________________________
From: Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com>
To: 78-L Mail List <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 5:46:53 AM
Subject: Re: [78-L] Estimated Survival of Shellac 78s in 2109??

But don't think that the discs are inert.  There are some organic
content to the mix and these can degrade.  Noise can grow on discs -- I
don't think the crackle on British pressings was there when they were
new.  Maybe we should also ask if the 78s that exist in 2109 will still
be in copyright.  

But your last question, about how much time we have to get the 78s
re-recorded, is opposite from what past history has shown.  Every medium
that has been used to re-record 78s has been proven to have a shorter
life than the original 78s.  Tape is doomed.  Digital is repeatedly made
obsolete. Digital is useful only as a convenience and as a distribution
means to replicate numerous copies so that maybe some of them will
survive.    

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com 

From: David Lennick <dlennick at sympatico.ca>
> Apart from breakage, I haven't seen any evidence that 78s will
> ever disintegrate. Many of us have specimens dating from 1900
> that are as playable today as ever, although I'd put my money
> on late 40s pressings being less durable than older ones. dl

78records at cdbpdx.com wrote:
> > Should the compounds used to make the early 78s be expected
> > to last for another hundred years? Two hundred years??
> > Or will they someday just turn to powder? How long have
> > we got to get them all recorded before they will all be gone? CDB

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